Enhancing the yield, fruiting body traits, and nutritional properties of five major edible fungi through the exploitation of ginger straw substrate

Edible fungi, as nutritious foods in healthy diets, have gained popularity among consumers. The expansion of the edible fungi cultivation scale led to a shortage of cultivation substrate, making the development and utilization of new substrates a research hotspot. Ginger straw, the main byproduct in the ginger planting process, boasts a huge yield. In this study, ginger straw substrate (GSS) was assessed for the first time for cultivating five major edible fungi. The results indicated a significant improvement in biological efficiency (BE) with GSS, increased by 1.22-64.81%. In terms of nutritional properties, the GSS not only significantly increased the crude protein content (0.36~10.6%) and reduced sugar content (0.01~1%), crude fiber content (0.14~3.87%), and mineral level (The maximum increases were 217.02 mg/kg for calcium, 4.74 mg/kg for magnesium, and 44.08 mg/kg for iron) but also positively affected the total antioxidant capacity and composition of flavor-contributing amino acids. These results provide a scientific basis for cultivating edible fungi with ginger straw and offer a new way for edible fungi substrate selection.